This meticulously researched, authoritative biography offers a detailed picture of Stalin’s childhood and youth, his shadowy career as a revolutionary in Georgia and his critical role during the October Revolution.

In ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar,'' Simon Sebag Montefiore draws upon new archival material, unpublished memoirs and interviews with survivors of that era to create a harrowing portrait of life in the dictator's inner circle. In doing so, he gives us an intimate look at Stalin himself and the culture of sadism, ruthlessness and dread that flourished around him, fueling a murderous regime that would leave tens of millions of people dead.

A Soviet weekly newspaper today published the most detailed accounting of Stalin's victims yet presented to a mass audience here, indicating that about 20 million died in labor camps, forced collectivization, famine and executions.

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, speaking on the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, pronounced Stalin a loyal Communist guilty of terrible crimes. Mikhail F. Shatrov, the preeminent political playwright of the Soviet Union, delivered a much harsher judgment in the most daring play of his career.